Customer Reviews

The Black Angel (Charlie Parker Mysteries)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The 5th book in the Charlie Parker series, The Black Angel is probably the most ambitious work that author John Connolly has undertaken yet. Lurking behind the seemingly mundane, though by no means less disturbing, murder of a New York prostitute lies a more horrifying tale of evil featuring fallen angels and their insidious spread on earth. This is a compelling book that combines the modern day thriller with the dank realm of the myth and supernatural with spine tingling results.

The story opens with a presentation of the myth that will drive the entire story. This myth involves The Black Angels known as Ashmael and Immael who gloried in the death and destruction that they brought down on the earth in the form of wars, rape and murder. But then Immael was confronted by a Cistercian monk and in the ensuing battle fell into a vast vat of molten silver where he was trapped, cast as a silver statue, and hidden. Ever since, Ashmael his brother has been searching for the map detailing where Immael was held. The map had been separated into fragments and scattered around the world. Should Immael be freed, an unthinkable fury would be unleashed on the world.

Charlie Parker is a Maine private investigator who is still haunted by the death of his wife and daughter with a guilt that refuses to be diminished. He now has another baby daughter, Sam, and a girlfriend, Rachel, who he loves very much, but the strain of his dangerous job plus his inability to move on in life is taking its toll on their relationship.

This strain is multiplied when, at his daughter's christening no less, he is caught up in the disappearance and possible murder of Louis' cousin Alice. Louis is Charlie's murderous, gay business partner, an extremely dangerous man from whom Rachel maintains a disapproving distance. Rightly or wrongly, Charlie immediately joins in the search for Alice leaving his girlfriend and daughter at home putting into doubt yet another relationship.

The book separates into two stories here. The first is the investigation of Alice's disappearance as Charlie, Louis and Louis' partner Angel hit the streets of New York to try to retrace Alice's last known steps. The retribution that Louis is known for will come swiftly and brutally when he founds out the person responsible for any harm that has been done to his cousin. This part of the story is your standard hardboiled thriller filled with street violence, crime and fast-paced action.

Now enter the Other side of the story. We know that the "person" behind Alice's murder is a man known as Brightwell, a huge monstrous man with a frightening disregard for human life and an unquenchable need to kill. But more frightening about this man is that he appears to have supernatural powers that he uses to gruesome effect on his victims. Brightwell leads a secret group of people known as "Believers" who are all on the hunt for the elusive fragments of the missing map. When they track down a piece they go to any lengths to acquire it, with devastating results.

Their mistake is unintentionally made by drawing Parker and his partners into the mix, although it seems that there will be no stopping Brightwell and his evil plans, even after Brightwell senses that there is something special about Parker, a terrible truth that could go a long way towards explaining his tragic past.

The Black Angel is a superbly satisfying thriller that delves deeply into mythology, dragging us back to the 15th century with stirring historical stories before taking us to the present and the horrifying evil that has resulted. From European monasteries to grim ossuaries and vast monuments to the dead, talk of apocrypha and the Book of Enoch to the creepy hobbyists who deal in the sale of human bones and the statues from which they are made this is a complex, yet rather creepy book.

For the fans of the series, there are numerous references to events from earlier books as well as returning characters, heroes and villains alike. While it is obviously aimed at readers who have experienced the earlier books, The Black Angel has such immense scope that it can stand on its own and still provide immense entertainment.

John Connelly has created a story of enormous depth and has been uncompromising in the amount of detail and research that has gone into the historical references. He has richly drawn his characters filling them in with alarming detail to create some of the most fully-fleshed villains I have ever encountered. He has then thrown a chilling other-worldly aspect over the top of all of this that nastily creeps into nightmares, is vividly descriptive and will stain your imagination for weeks to come.

At over 500 pages, The Black Angel is long by today's standards, but it is a story that simply flies by as you are lost in the dark underworld of the hunt for the fallen angel. Stout of heart and strong of stomach will devour this supernatural thriller of the highest order.

Laced with liberal references to previous works, "The Black Angel", fifth in John Connolly's private investigator Charlie "Bird" Parker series of thrillers, is by far the author's most complex and ambitious effort. While Connolly's rich and lyrical prose always carries an element of the supernatural, "Angel" treads without apology into a heavily theological and mystical territory featuring allegorical fallen angels and the cult that worships them. A young prostitute has disappeared in New York, and Parker is called upon by the mother to try to find her. It turns out that the prostitute is also the niece of Parker's sometime partner Louis deepening, if possible, Louis' usual brand of malevolence. The trail leads Parker and team into a richly convoluted maze constructed of 15th century monasteries, secret crypts and creepy ossuaries, cadaverous art dealers, and the "apocrypha", ancient canonical text considered too controversial to be included in the standard books of the Bible. While unraveling the dual mysteries of Louis' niece and the legendary fallen "Black Angel", Parker confronts perhaps his most formable adversary yet, the mysterious and repugnant Brightwell, a corpulent villain as ageless as he is obese.

If you've never read John Connolly, "The Black Angel" would not be a great place to start. Neither Parker nor the Louis/Angel team of hired mayhem are in the best spirits, each haunted by their own guilts and ghosts of the past. Notwithstanding, Connolly delivers another unconventional and offbeat PI thriller, at the same time brutal and beautifully written. A must read for the Connolly fan, while the uninitiated would be better off starting with "Every Dead Thing".

Mystery, thriller, suspense with hints of the supernatural (or super disturbed,) The Black Angel will lure you into a world where evil brushes casually by on busy city streets, and it will keep you there way past your bedtime.

From Maine to New York City to Sedlec, a place where human remains have been transformed into works of art, John Connolly masterfully paints evocative portraits of villains who are obvious, and those who are not, as he explores the interconnectedness of all things - good and evil, living and dead, the divine and the fallen. Torn between those in need and those he needs, Charlie Parker, Connolly's haunted hero, seeks redemption in the face of evil - head on and with dark humor, at one point likening an FBI agent attempting to cross a snarled New York Street to "federally funded Frogger." Go ahead, cross the street with Charlie - you won't regret entering his fascinating, darkly funny and eminently chilling realm, guided by an author with one of the most distinctive and literate voices in contemporary fiction.

That Connolly is a gifted writer is no longer in question. He writes crime/detective novels with a Victorian flare rarely seen in modern fiction of any type. This book is no exception. Unfortunately in this book, he uses a few too many words for what is, in reality, a short story, at best. I will continue to read all of his novels just to admire his gift of quality prose. I hope that he backs up a little and allows Charlie to come back to Earth in his next tale.

Reviewed By John A. Mangarella for Small Spiral Notebook

You know you're reading a world class thriller when the opening pages begin with the fall of the angels from Heaven and the unleashing of evil on the world. But, make no mistake, this is not an other-worldly novel because renowned author John Connolly delivers a very modern story in The Black Angel. This is detective Charlie "Bird" Parker's fifth appearance since Mr. Connolly introduced him in Every Dead Thing, the book where Charlie Parker lost his young wife and child to murder thus transforming him into tortured yet brilliant soul.

Charlie Parker's days are rooted within the death of his wife and daughter. Every breath of his existence and each new case he tackles are stained with a smear of sacrificial blood. He'd had an argument with his wife, walked out of the house and spent a few hours perched on a barstool while his family was slaughtered in the safety of their own home. By the time he's sucked into the "missing persons" case that is the catalyst for The Black Angel, he's a man possessed with indelible pain capable of delivering a brutal justice. He has remarried and has another beautiful wife and child, a scenario that not only frightens him because of the tragic past but intensifies his visions of his dead wife and daughter, instilling him with a sense of betrayal. He's guilty of not being there to protect them and, later, of remarrying following their deaths. If he thought he was visiting every level of hell before The Black Angel, Charlie Parker's search for a missing prostitute locks him into a centuries old battle with evil itself, the fallen angel.

Alice was abducted by the fallen angel because her last client owned a missing artifact crucial to the spreading of evil. The streetwalker's trail leads Charlie Parker through the underside of New York, to a multiple homicide near the Mexican border and back through the centuries to Sedlec, a small Eastern European town where evil came to dwell in 1421 and then forward to 1944 and the massacre at a French monastery. Charlie searches not only for the missing girl but for The Evil itself, fully cognizant that The Evil is seeking him out in ways too horrible to imagine. Any reader that rides shotgun with Charlie Parker on this case is going to gaze into tombstone eyes and wonder whether the fallen angels were really driven from Heaven in disgrace or if they, insanely, were escaping goodness for the hellish comfort of evil.

The Black Angel is the first John Connolly novel I have reviewed. In an effort to catch up with the world through Charlie Parker's eyes, I bought the first novels and spent time becoming acquainted with Parker, his visions of his dead wife and child and the other recurring characters. I really wanted to answer the question: "What kind of writer opens a modern detective story with the fall of the angels at the beginning of time?"

I didn't wait long for the answer.

John Connolly is an extraordinary writer that can seamlessly switch voice and point of view without interrupting the story flow as perceived by the reader. His characters are sharply, almost acidly drawn. His research, as well as the incredibly lean prose that carry this compelling plot, possess a grace of clarity and the depth of the unknown. John Connolly is very much his own man on the page because he's a risk taker unafraid of tossing the dice with tortured characters and diverse plot lines. He is honest with his villains, a point many writers miss. He never gives lip service to evil by portraying cardboard cutout bad guys. He brings you face to face with evil until The Black Angel boils to explosion.

John Connolly's The Black Angel should be on the "must enjoy" list for any reader searching for a solid, superbly researched detective story. Even more so, his work should be on the "must read" list for aspiring writers who want to see how excellence in craft can reside between the covers of a book.

I have read everything Connolly has writen and on the whole it has been very good, particularly the early stuff. This one, however, is sadly in need of a good editor who could have cut it down from around 600 pages to three.

Everything is described in great detail, over two pages devoted to telling us how a minor character became a pimp, (as if we cared), pages of historical data printed in italics, and endless psychobabble of Parker's emotional problems with himself, his family and the world at large.

The writing is good when it sticks to the action, but one part hard boiled detective (where it should have stayed),one part supernatural hokum, one part history and one part romance, equals a total mess.

I don't like supernatural fiction. I never read fantasy novels. I alomst never read science fiction, the exception being the Honor Harrington series David Weber's done. In that case I made an exception because the books are a concious pastiche of the old Horatio Hornblower books, and I grew up on those. I *never* read horror novels, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, that sort of thing. I *did* at one time read some, enough to know that both of those men are talented writers, and enough to know that I didn't want to read anything else scary that they'd written. Given all of that, it's interesting that I enjoy John Connolly. I think the key is the fact that though these are horror novels, they're structured as detective stories, which I *do* read, and there's never much of anything in the stories which is *certainly* supernatural. There are just things that are unexplained....

In this fifth Charlie Parker novel, the detective is living in Maine with his lover, Rachel, and their daughter. His friend Louis is informed that his niece is missing, and he goes down to New York City to find her, trailing his partner Angel. Charlie follows, and soon they're on the trail of a shadowy cult of very very strange people known as the Believers, who collect bone sculptures of things and appear to worship or think they follow fallen angels. There are many murky plot twists, dark references, and characters who are very very scary. Charlie and his pals are in for a real ride.

This is one of the best books in the series. Connolly's to the point now where the writing is just awesome, and the characters and the plot are very satisfying, There is even a small passage explaining something from a previous book, at least a bit. I enjoyed this book a great deal, and would recommend it generally, with the proviso that it's *very* *very* strong in terms of horror and suffering.

The accomplished John Connolly has an astute insight into the characterization of evil which he demonstrates brilliantly in his fabulous new thriller, "The Black Angel". In it he resurrects his dark anti-hero, Maine private investigator Charlie Parker.

Parker is living on a tightrope, balancing a family life with his sometimes dangerous profession. Parker's criminal friends, familiar Connolly characters, homosexual lovers Angel and Louis are in Maine attending the baptiism of Parker's daughter. Quite unexpectedly Louis' Aunt Martha arrives at Parker's doorstep with a tale concerning her fears about the disappearance of her heroin addicted daughter Alice.

Parker decides to join forces with Angel and Louis to investigate the disappearance. They soon get drawn into an unexpected series of events surrounding The Black Angel, a legend foretold in the Book of Enoch. Related to the casting out of angels from heaven, the myth was propagated and followed by a group called The Believers. This group was in part lead by a bizarre apparently immortal villain Brightwell imbued with supernatural powers.

We learn that Alice's disappearnce involves a silver statue of The Black Angel hidden secretly long ago. It's location is of vital importance to The Believers.

Parker aided by Angel, Louis and others encounter various strange and dangerous members of The Believers as they pursue the truth concerning the whereabouts of Louis' cousin Alice. What results is a trail of dead bodies and a riveting and cleverly conceived plot that mixes both religion and the paranormal.

Connolly writes with a particular flair and style that is unique. As with his previous work, I felt compelled to do homework in the midst of reading, to more clearly understand some of the history he uses in fabricating this excellent novel.

The latest and most compelling addition to the Charlie Parker series. The research is meticulous, the characters are sharply drawn and John Connolly's rich and resonating prose remains unsurpassed by the majority of his peers. Thoroughly recommended.

John Connolly again delivers a suspenseful novel with supernatural undertones featuring troubled private investigator Charlie Parker.

Charlie Parker is a man who truly dances with the devil and has the burns to prove it. While attempting to sustain a relationship with his partner Rachel and their infant daughter, Parker attempts repress his need for absolution from the unknown sin that haunts him. He takes only run of the mill cases in an effort to allay Rachel's fears but is troubled and dissatisfied by his lack of enthusiam for the mundane. However, evil seeks out Parker, this time in the guise of a missing persons case.

While celebrating his daughter's christening, Parker becomes involved in the disappearance of a drug addicted prostitute who happens to be the niece of his cohort, Louis. This international investigation leads him to a cult that's purpose is to unite demon twins, separated when one is captured and imprisoned in silver by a Medievel monk. Ultimately Parker is confronted with the source of his need to bring balance to a world permeated by an eternal evil and chooses to sacrifice his desire for love and happiness in order to protect the people he loves most from forces he understands too well.

This book is riveting. However, for those not familiar with this author, I would suggest starting with one of the earlier novels--all are excellent--so that the history of Parker and his cohorts is understood. Additionally, the Biblical/metaphysical aspects are more aggressively presented in this book than in the earlier ones. I was somewhat disappointed by Rachel's attitude, particuarly in view of the horrors she and Parker shared and overcame, as well as by Parker's ultimate concession, but all in all, this is one superb read.